District didn't just suddenly go downhill

Thursday

Mar 28, 2013 at 12:01 AMMar 29, 2013 at 9:12 AM

Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman and City Councilman Andrew J. Ginther are right to put pressure on the Columbus school board ("Coleman issues ultimatum," Dispatch article, Tuesday). The school board should be disbanded and the education of our children taken over by the state.

The school board should be disbanded and the education of our children taken over by the state.

But both men are late to the game. Public education in Columbus has been a train wreck for more than a decade (during which time Ginther served on the board).

Superintendent Gene Harris and most board members have been abject failures at their jobs, resulting in a school system that is one of the worst in the United States and a huge embarrassment to the city.

It’s all very well for Coleman and Ginther to criticize the board now that we all understand that widespread fraudulent, and probably criminal, behavior has been tolerated, and probably encouraged. But where were they when our school system was becoming one of the worst-performing in the country?

- THOMAS DUGAN

Columbus

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